Government Focuses on Tackling Forest and Land Fires in Multiple Regions, No Plans Yet to Replace Officials

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Minister of State Secretary (Mensesneg) Prasetyo Hadi has confirmed that the government is currently focused on tackling forest and land fires (karhutla) in several regions and that there are no plans yet to replace officials who have failed to control fires in their areas.

Met at the Presidential Palace complex in Jakarta on Tuesday, State Secretary Prasetyo said that President Prabowo Subianto has requested that forest and land fire handling be carried out as effectively as possible amid the increased fire potential due to the El Niño phenomenon.

“As we also conveyed yesterday, the central government fully supports whatever is needed by regional governments, by BNPB, by our colleagues from Manggala Agni at the Ministry of Forestry, by provincial governments, as well as for example in Bromo by the National Park Authority, we fully support them,” said the State Secretary.

This was previously conveyed by Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djamari Chaniago in a press conference on Monday (10/7) regarding the policy of replacing regional police chiefs and military commanders who fail to handle forest and land fires.

“We have not reached that point yet. The important thing is that we concentrate first on resolving this as quickly as possible,” said Prasetyo.

He also asked the entire public to provide support and prayers to all teams who are currently still battling to extinguish fires in several locations.

“Because indeed this time the El Niño is quite strong and the weather is quite dry. Including OMC, Weather Modification Operations, we are preparing all the designs, but technically the explanation from the Head of BMKG is that conditions with clouds that allow weather modification operations to produce rain are not always available,” Prasetyo Hadi explained.

Previously, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Djamari Chaniago said that the government is currently working to handle forest and land fires covering 107,000 hectares spread across several regions. Special focus is being given to areas categorised as vulnerable, namely Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Kalimantan and Riau.